La Quinta Restaurant El Grullo

COPY & TRANSLATION: Kopakitsy Alenka Huesca Carvajal
PHOTOGRAPHY: Jonás Núñez

La Quinta Restaurant El Grullo

LOCATION

El Grullo, Jalisco

YEAR

June 2019

AREA

2,342.47 m2

DEVELOPED AREA

2,067.77 m2
The restaurant La Quinta is, with more than 40 years, one of the most prestigious in the region, its renown and the demand from customers made clear the need to expand and renew, a challenge that we assumed hand in hand with its owners. In the beginning, it was a traditional construction based on arches with a great depth evoking a cave, generating a warm, cozy and intimate atmosphere. New values had to be added, without discarding the old ones, offering to the diners a wider range of emotions with innovative ways of experiencing the space. It is necessary to understand the challenges and opportunities in a project, in this case, we knew the significance of not cutting off the service to the customers to keep the cash flow coming, for this reason the project and its execution were separated into stages, which started from the functional with an industrial kitchen to the aesthetic. We knew that there would be three observers of the architectural piece. The one who passes at full speed, the one who crosses the threshold and the one, the privileged one who is already in.
Therefore, from the outside, the linear and solid forms evoke speed whilst at the same time give the passerby the opportunity to contemplate the place despite everything, taking advantage of its more than 60 meters of façade. Upon entering there is a barrier, a landscaped corridor, which as a buffer strip gives you that feeling of leaving the noise, dust, smoke and chaos of a busy avenue to enter a cozy place, where you really want to be

With this, we are about to get to know who the main witness of the work is, who lives it, who inhabits it, who feels it. Inside, a saturation of pure geometries and colors, as in papel picado – literally translated as perforated paper, a form of traditional Mexican art with intricately designed tissue paper banners used in celebrations such as Day of the Dead – gives life to the design that together with materials, textures and ambiances refer us to the signature dish of the firm, the traditional Birria – a traditional Mexican dish made of goat or lamb meat – which in turn mixes spices and innumerable ingredients that patiently amalgamate to achieve a complex and unique flavor.

The immersion in this space begins at its original entrance, where we stole almost half of the restaurant’s space in favour of an efficient, modern and transparent industrial kitchen, which is exposed to the client, creating confidence. Here the traditional arches were refined to achieve more forceful forms, under a roof that welcomes us with its symmetry.

In the center we have a huge canteen, which seems to float in the place, fulfilling the function of separating and uniting, giving us the feeling of crossing from the familiar, warm, traditional space to a huge open terrace, fresh, modern, taking advantage of the huge space previously occupied by the party room. There, floating clouds of wood, together with blocks of mobile planters delimit the space, while giving it flexibility and leaving the protagonism to the view to the outside, where the gardening and the cars themselves in the parking lot achieve that separation from the influence of the outside and allows you to give yourself to the enjoyment of a delicious cuisine, a good drink and above all, the company of your loved ones, the co-protagonists of your life.

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